


Wayfarer

by Netgirl_y2k



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Lesbian Character, slight Aloy/Petra
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:07:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25125943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Netgirl_y2k/pseuds/Netgirl_y2k
Summary: “So what’s going to happen is, tomorrow you’re going to pack up and head to Meridian where you’ll break a king’s heart and tell a girl that you like her.”Aloy’s mouth curved into a small smile. “I couldn’t just fight a herd of corrupted Machines instead?”“Sorry, Flame Hair, that’s not how it works.”
Relationships: Aloy/Talanah Khane Padish
Comments: 8
Kudos: 160
Collections: Little Black Dress Exchange 2020





	Wayfarer

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Serie11](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serie11/gifts).



Aloy took a sip of Oseram ale and coughed; she would never understand Erend’s fondness for this stuff. 

Petra looked up from the Glinthawk heart she was admiring at Aloy’s splutter; she leaned across, eyes glinting in the flames of the forge-fire they were sitting by, and took the cup from Aloy’s hands.

“So,” she said with a wry grin, “are you ready to tell me what you’re still doing in Free Heap?”

“Don’t you enjoy having me here, Petra?”

“You’ve brought me more machine scrap than I could make use of if I had a forge ten times this size, Little Spark. Plus, you’re nice to look at.” Rolling her eyes at Petra’s easy flirtations had become a habit for Aloy by this point, and she did just that. “I would have you at the Heap full time if I could. But three weeks ago you said you were just passing through on your way to Meridian, and since then you’ve fetched every machine part I could think to ask you for, cleared out every bandit camp, and helped every orphan in need.”

“Maybe I like it here.”

“And why wouldn’t you?” said Petra, grinning. “We Oseram are a delight, me more than most, but you’re also avoiding Meridian.” 

Aloy lowered her voice, then so as to be heard over the clanging metal and drunken singing that marked an Oseram celebration, she shuffled closer to Petra. “I think Avad is going to ask me to marry him.”

Petra exhaled through her teeth. “The Sun Queen...” she reached out and twined a lock of Aloy’s hair around her finger before letting it fall. “The name suits you, Flame Hair, or...at least it would, if it was what you wanted?”

“Erend’s a good friend, and he’s happy for that to be all we are, I think Varl’s actually a little afraid of me, and Nil’s Nil, he never expected me to say yes, but Avad’s the Sun King–” 

“It must be terrible to have everyone you meet fall in love with you,” Petra said, gently teasing.

Aloy’s cheeks coloured, only in part because they were sitting so near the forge. “I don’t know,” she said, chewing on her bottom lip, “sometimes it can be nice.”

“Don’t flatter yourself’ said Petra, leaning close, “I just think you’re hot and competent.” 

“That must be why I like you so much.”

Petra hummed her agreement, and kissed Aloy. The Machine Hunter’s lips were chapped, and Petra could feel her bow calluses where she curled her fingers into Petra’s hammer forged biceps. 

They lingered like that for a long moment, neither of them moving to turn the embrace into something more passionate. It was Petra who broke the kiss. “There’s another world,” she said, still close to Aloy’s mouth, “where I could convince you to stick around.”

“Maybe,” Aloy agreed, almost sadly, “but it’s not this one.”

“You’re still nice to look at though,” said Petra, pulling back and taking a swig from Aloy’s abandoned cup of ale.

Aloy’s uncontrolled burst of laughter was nothing but relieved. “Is this,” she made a simultaneously vague and incredibly specific hand gesture at _this_ , “why you left the Claim?”

“Some of it,” said Petra, shrugging. “I used to know a woman-” Aloy made a valiant effort not to smirk, and failed “-who told me that the Oseram used to be okay with women like us, but then the Red Raids happened, and suddenly there was a lot of pressure to make more Oseram.”

“It was the same in the Embrace,” said Aloy, “not just because of the Red Raids, but the Nora have always venerated motherhood, and the idea that you might take a mate knowing that no child would come of it...it’s alien to them. But I guess I was always pretty alien to them.” 

“I don’t think the possibility of women like us has ever occurred to the Carja–” 

Aloy blushed bright red and changed the subject, suspiciously quickly if you asked Petra. “They’re okay with it in Ban-Ur.”

“And one of these nights, Little Spark,” said Petra, “I’m going to get you to tell me exactly how you know that, but for tonight I want to know about your Carja girl?”

“I don’t have a Carja girl. Not really–”

Petra reached out, caught Aloy by the chin, and turned her face towards Petra’s. “If I had taken you to my bed tonight, Aloy, who would you have been thinking about?”

“Um, you?”

“Well, obviously,” said Petra dryly. “Other than me?”

Aloy cast her eyes down and said, very quickly and all at once, “Her name’s Talanah, and I haven’t told her how I feel, because the Carja have barely accepted a woman as Sun Hawk and I don’t want to ruin that for her, and like you said I don’t know if the idea has even occurred to her, but we took down a Thunderjaw together, and I really want to kiss her.”

“Huh.” Petra’s grip on Aloy’s chin transitioned into her gently smoothing Aloy’s hair back from her face and tucking it behind her ear.

“What?”

‘I’m just suddenly very glad I didn’t take you to bed tonight after all.”

“Hey!” Aloy yelped, affronted.

“The thing about how amazing you are, Red, is that it makes it very easy to forget how young you are too.”

“Um,” said Aloy. “Thanks, I think?”

“So what’s going to happen is, tomorrow you’re going to pack up and head to Meridian where you’ll break a king’s heart and tell a girl that you like her.”

Aloy’s mouth curved into a small smile. “I couldn’t just fight a herd of corrupted Machines instead?”

“Sorry, Flame Hair, that’s not how it works.”

*

Talanah Khane Padish opened the door to the Hunter’s Lodge herself; she wasn’t wearing her usual headpiece, and her shiny black hair lay invitingly over her shoulders. She smiled fondly and said, “I’ve been expecting you.” 

“Really?” asked Aloy, who had gone to considerable effort to enter the city without using the elevators or alerting the guards to her presence. She had wanted the chance to speak with Talanah alone before the Blameless Marad could hear she was in the city and summon her to the palace, but those cliffs were _not_ easy to climb. 

“A Nora Huntress in Banuk armour-” Talanah tugged playfully at the braided cloth that made up part of Banuk dress “-who’s been helping everyone in need all across the Sundom. It could only have been you.” 

Talanah pulled the door wider and ushered Aloy inside. “Are we alone?” Aloy asked, though had there been anyone else present the Sun Hawk would probably not have been answering her own front door.

“Everyone else has gone home for the night, and I’m the only one in residence. All the other Hawks have taken their Thrushes out on hunts. You’re more than welcome to a room for as long as you’re in the city.” Aloy nodded absently, and Talanah continued, “Unless-” for the first time in their acquaintance she looked uncertain “-that is, you may want to stay at the palace.” 

“Why would I want to stay at the palace?” Aloy’s voice was unwittingly accusing, and Talanah flinched in surprise.

“Well,” she began defensively, “the entire city is talking about the rumours. The people would never have countenanced Avad marrying his Oseram guard captain; she was an outsider and a warrior–”

“ _I’m_ an outsider,” Aloy pointed out. “And a Machine Hunter!”

“You also saved Meridian,” Talanah reached out like she wanted to toy with Aloy’s Banuk clothes again, but stopped herself, leaving her hand lingering awkwardly near Aloy. “The people would be happy to call you their Sun Queen, and Avad would be lucky to have you by his side.”

“I’m going to tell Avad no,” said Aloy decisively. “At least, I am if he ever gets around to actually asking me.” 

“Oh...” said Talanah, then: “I have to say I’m a little relieved.”

“Really?” Aloy’s voice squeaked, just a little. “I mean, really?”

“I was going to ask for your help hunting a Stormbird that’s been terrorising a settlement in the Jewel, but I wasn’t sure that I’d hold a candle to a royal wedding.”

Aloy seized Talanah’s hand, the one that was still hanging awkwardly between them. “I would _love_ to hunt a Stormbird with you. I, um, need to tell you something-” Aloy looked down at where they were holding hands “-I’m going to turn Avad down no matter what you say, so there’s no pressure, and I’ll hunt the Stormbird either way, and I don’t know if thought has ever crossed your mind, but–”

“Aloy,” said Talanah gently, squeezing her fingers, “what is it?”

Aloy screwed up her courage, screwed her eyes shut, and kissed Talanah Khane Padish. 

Aloy had waited until dusk to start scaling the cliffs of Meridian and it was late enough now that Talanah wore her hair loose and had stripped off her heavier pieces of armour, but not so late that she had wiped the paint from her face; her painted lips were sticky against Aloy’s mouth and her silk clothes slippery under Aloy’s hands. 

Talanah made a small, wanting sound in her throat, fisted her hands in Aloy’s Banuk clothes, and opened her mouth under Aloy’s.

“Aloy,” she said when they pulled apart, wet mouthed and breathless, “no one who saw you fight Redmaw could have failed to think about it.”

Aloy chuckled and buried her hands in Talanah’s inky hair. “I don’t want to stay at the palace...”

*

Talanah’s room had Carja silk furnishings and hunting trophies mounted the walls; a disc launcher Aloy recognised as coming from Redmaw held pride of place above her bed.

Aloy was already half dressed in when Talanah woke; her face bare, the paint she’d been wearing the previous night having transferred to Aloy’s mouth and skin.

“Fly-by-night,” Talanah said sleepily, without rancour.

“I’m going up to the palace. Avad’s a good man, he’s been a good friend to me. I need to put a stop to these rumours that we’re getting married before he embarrasses himself; it’s the least I can do.”

Talanah slid forward bringing the silk sheets with her, she wrapped her arms around Aloy’s middle and pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “Don’t tell him about last night, okay?”

“Because that would be adding insult to injury?” Aloy suggested.

Talanah’s chuckle rumbled against Aloy’s skin, but even then it felt forced. “Because the Sun Hawk sits on the king’s council, and some of the more traditional members barely tolerate a woman’s presence as it is.”

“Um,” said Aloy. “Okay.”

“Hey.” Talanh’s voice was firm as she shifted position to straddle Aloy’s lap, and took her face in her hands. “I know how lucky I am to have caught the eye of Aloy, Hades Slayer, but Carja minds change slowly. All I’m asking is that you give me a little time...and in the meantime maybe let me court you with a Stormbird trophy?”

“I actually already have one of those,” said Aloy, unable to stop the smirk that was creeping onto her face.

Talanah punched Aloy’s shoulder, and then closed the distance between them to give her a kiss that was no less bruising. “Of course you do.”


End file.
